Happy Warhorse

(See front cover)

"The Sidewalks of New York" was played by mistake on the monster organ in Chicago Stadium last week during the Republican National Convention. It produced only snickers & snorts among the G. 0. Partisans. Next week, on purpose, the same piece will be played on the same organ in the same hall. It will produce happy grins and roaring applause among the embattled delegates to a far livelier, less orderly National Convention of Democrats. Theme-song of their 1928 campaign, the tune will be an overtone of Democratic politics so long as Alfred Emanuel Smith is alive, which he very much was last week.

Stop Roosevelt? Chicago started fill ing up with Democrats even before it was emptied of Republicans. "We'll put on a show that will make the Republican shindig look like child's play," boasted Jouett Shouse, Washington headquarters director and candidate for the convention's permanent chairmanship. What promised to make the Democratic show thoroughly exciting was the paramount question: "Can Franklin Delano Roosevelt be stopped short of the nomination?"

Winning North Carolina's 26 last week, the ambitious New York Governor had 563 convention votes either pledged to him or claimed as friendly. This was 15 short of a majority, 207 short of the two-thirds vote of 770 required to nominate. Yet to be allocated among the candidates were 170 votes from New York and Pennsylvania, where delegations were standing pat to bargain. Roosevelt managers claimed that their candidate would get 691 votes on the first ballot, that the 79 more needed to nominate would come his way from "favorite son" delegates before the roll-call ended. By Democratic tradition Governor Roosevelt should get the nomination eventually if he can show a majority (578) on the first roll-call.

"I Am a Progressive." In the ears of each & every Roosevelt delegate moving on Chicago last week was the echo of a small phonograph record received through the mail. The record:

"My dear friend: I wish it lay in my power to talk with you face to face on the eve of one of the most critical conventions that our party has ever held. . . . I appreciate the high honor. . . . I am a progressive in deed as well as in word in the truest and most Democratic sense. We are in a safe majority . . . if we stand together. . . . I hope history will point to your wise action at Chicago. . . . I shall welcome any suggestions you may have to make and I hope to see you in person very soon. Please accept my assurance that you will always have the gratitude and friendship of--

"FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT."

"Roosevelt or Smith?" Each & every delegate, Roosevelt-pledged or not. also received by mail a pamphlet entitled "Roosevelt or Smith?" Compiled and distributed by Hamilton A. Long, Manhattan attorney, it undertook to show, by editorials from the New York Press, what "home folks" thought of the two New Yorkers. Assets & liabilities of each man were adroitly weighed. Spread upon the record were the Tammany scandals, Governor Roosevelt's relation to them and the comments of his neighbors on how he handled them. Plain was the assumption from the pamphlet that few New Yorkers had high regard for their Governor's public character or political courage.

In contrast Alfred Emanuel Smith appeared to be rated high by his neighbors. Editorials gushing with praise for his recent pronouncements on the state of the Union were quoted. His administrative career was favorably reviewed. His loss of the 1928 election was argued out of court. It was strongly suggested that, if nominated, his religion would cost him fewer votes than four years ago.

"Stopper" Smith. Still titular leader of the Democracy, Mr. Smith was among the first to reach Chicago last week, arriving almost a week ahead of time from his skyscraping office in Manhattan. His open purpose was to compress all non-Roosevelt factions into a solid bloc of votes to keep the New York Governor out of the nomination. Observing his activities, political experts pondered his motives. After his defeat four years ago he had said:

"I certainly do not expect ever to run for public office again. I've had all I can stand of it. I'll never lose my interest in public affairs but as far as running for office again--that's finished."

Most Democrats took him at his word and excluded him from their 1932 plans. For two years he sank out of political sight while his Empire State Building began to lift its high head over Manhattan. But when the 1930 Congressional elections came, Al Smith like an old warhorse, sniffed the smoke of battle. Massachusetts Democrats wanted him to help elect Marcus Allen Coolidge to the Senate. He went to Boston and received an ovation that for noise and fervor equaled his 1928 welcomes. Democrat Coolidge was elected over Calvin Coolidge's Republican candidate. The Brown Derby still had plenty of friends.

Meanwhile Governor Roosevelt was going into his second term at Albany as a candidate for the Presidency and Mr. Smith was growing more & more disappointed with his successor's record. His feelings were hurt when his old friend "Frank" stopped coming to him for advice and suggestions. He felt that the Governor was too much interested in the White House to take a strong, resolute stand against local graft and corruption. He heard rumors of what Governor Roosevelt was supposed to have said about him behind his back. Gradually a famed political friendship was wedged apart into hostility. Last year Mr. Smith openly fought a reforestation amendment to the State Constitution sponsored by Governor Roosevelt--and lost in the election. The Smith blood ran red and hot.

In firm and friendly contact with the silent powers of his party, Mr. Smith heard strong talk against a Roosevelt nomination. Men like Bernard Mannes Baruch did not think the Governor, if nominated, could win. Men like Mrfc Baruch looked appealingly toward Mr. Smith. Somebody had to step in, said they, if Roosevelt was to be headed off. Why not the Brown Derby again? Mr. Smith wondered why not. What if he had said he would not seek office? His friends wanted him. He had taken a bad beating in 1928 when times were good. By rights, he could tell himself, he deserved another crack at the Presidency when times were bad and a Democrat could win.

As the preferential primaries approached and the Roosevelt forces took the field in earnest, Mr. Smith announced last February: "I feel I owe it to the millions of men and women who supported me in 1928 to make my position clear. If the Democratic National Convention should decide it wants me to lead, I will make the fight but I will not make a preconvention campaign to secure the support of delegates."

With the Brown Derby's receptivity out in the open, its friends put Mr. Smith first into the New Hampshire primary where Governor Roosevelt beat him. But later they carried Massachusetts for him, "chocked" the Roosevelt bandwagon. Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey fell into line. Candidate Smith began to feel all the old exhilaration of political combat. Completely forgotten now were his 1928 words. As a personal matter he wanted the nomination; as a party matter he was determined Governor Roosevelt should not get it by default.

After Governor Roosevelt made his rabble-rousing "forgotten man" speech, Mr. Smith at a Jefferson Day dinner in Washington answered it: "I will take off my coat and vest and fight to the end against any candidate who persists in any demagogic appeal to the masses." Mr. Smith also supplied the country with a full-length platform on debt revision, pub lic works, taxation, economy, Prohibition. He was vividly acclaimed for straight thinking, plain speaking. As his popularity rose, he heard on all sides that he and he alone could win the election. The demand for his nomination reached a climax fort night ago when the potent Scripps-Howard papers vehemently demanded: "Give us Alfred E. Smith!"

Thus last week at Chicago Mr. Smith reemerged, a vital, alert, aggressive personality, ready, if possible, to dominate the convention. He honestly believed he could get the nomination. If not, he expected to have a mighty say in who should.

Deadlock? The Smith strategy was simple: Bind the "favorite son" states to stand by their candidates until the Roosevelt strength is broken; into the deadlock introduce a strong impartial candidate for all factions to nominate.

To stop Roosevelt will require at least 385 votes, one-third of the convention. Delegations pledged to John Nance Gar ner, James Hamilton Lewis, George White. James A. Reed, William Henry Murray, Albert Cabell Ritchie and Harry Flood Byrd, plus his own vote, totaled 392. Could Al Smith hold the line with such a paper-thin margin? The Roosevelt men scoffed the idea.

But in every unbossed convention there are imponderables which a compelling personality on the rostrum may miraculously put into action. William Jennings Bryan had the power to sway delegates to unexpected results. Alfred Emanuel Smith will enter the convention, not only, as a candidate for the Presidency but also as a delegate-at-large from New York. As such the rostrum will be his for the asking. He may take it to impress his Wet views upon the delegates during the platform debate which precedes the nomination tussle. At such a tense time a speech by the "Happy Warrior," full of fire and fight, might start a stampede away from the man who called Al Smith that in 1924 and 1928.

Availabilities. A prime factor in the Smith strategy is to settle in advance on no one candidate. To do so would jeopardize the unity of the "favorite son" bloc for while doubt remains, each candidate can continue to hope the lightning will eventually strike him.

Also to be dickered with was Tammany Hall's bloc of some 40 uncommitted votes which might decide a close nomination. Their price was plain: for Roosevelt if he could win quickly and James John Walker were not removed by him as Mayor; against him if Smith proved that he could really hold the line and supply a good compromise candidate. The only favorite son who seemed available for whatever backroom conference is called to break a deadlock was Maryland's Governor Ritchie. Friendly with Governor Roosevelt, he was liked by the Brown Derby. Mark Sullivan, oldtime convention observer, predicted that of all the dark horses Newton Diehl Baker was "the most probable nominee" if Smith stopped Roosevelt. Last week Mr. Baker, attending his daughter's graduation from Sarah Lawrence college at Bronxville, N. Y. where he delivered the commencement address, declared: "I'm not a candidate. My hat is as far from the ring as it ever was."

Smith on Conventions. Al Smith has been going to Democratic conventions since 1908. As a New York delegate-at-large this year, he has behind him a veteran's skill to combat a neophyte's candidacy. Writing last fortnight in the Saturday Evening Post he delivered these matured views on conventions:

"It is . . . high time to declare in favor of some modern method of conducting our National Conventions. . . . Nominating a candidate in June brings him before the electorate . . . for four solid months. It requires a man of great vigor and great bodily strength to stand the physical strain of it. . . . The conventions should occur about the first week in September. . . .

"There is one thing about our conventions of today that certainly does not create a very good impression . . . and that is the ever-attendant disorder. . . . Conventions are not conducted with the dignity and the decorum commensurate with their great importance. . . . In Denver, in 1908, on the first two days of the convention, a majority of the delegates were on Pike's Peak, 80 miles away."

Smith Week. Before starting for a convention that promised to be as indecorous and undignified as any he had ever attended, Al Smith spent a quiet week in New York. While fishing off Long Island he met with John Francis Curry, Tammany chieftain, and Boss John H. McCooey of Brooklyn. Two days later affable Governor Joseph Buell Ely of Massachusetts dropped in to see Mr. Smith at the Empire State Building. Governor Ely will make the Smith nominating speech. Asked whether he would refer to Mr. Smith as the Happy Warrior, Governor Ely snapped: "We've graduated from that high school stuff, I hope." Mr. Smith appeared to tell newsmen that he had received by mail "about nine million clippings" of last fortnight's Scripps-Howard editorial.

Roosevelt Week. No less active on the eve of the convention were Governor Roosevelt and his aides. James A. Farley, Roosevelt preconvention manager, turned up early in Chicago where he began dangling vice-presidential bait before lesser candidates. He hired the presidential suite at the Congress Hotel. Would Candidate Roosevelt go to Chicago, appear before a deadlocked convention to win the nomination? At Albany the Governor laughed, talked of "hot weather reports," would not say yes or no. John E. Mack, Poughkeepsie Democrat, onetime State Supreme Court justice, was selected as the Roosevelt nominator.

Off-the-Record Man, Busier than a busy bee at Roosevelt headquarters in Manhattan last week was small, wrinkle-faced Louis McHenry Howe, the Governor's personal secretary and political handyman. What Mrs. Belle Moskowitz was to Alfred Emanuel Smith, what George Edward Akerson was to Herbert Hoover, what Edward ("Ted") Clark was to Calvin Coolidge, Louis Howe is to Franklin Roosevelt. A newshawk for the old New York Herald, he attached himself in 1911 to Mr. Roosevelt who took him along to the Navy Department. They have been together ever since, call each other "Franklin" and "Louis," share the Governor's town house on East 65th Street. Lacking personal ambition, Secretary Howe keeps himself far in the background, vigorously denies that he is the "power-behind-the-Roosevelt-throne." "I just get things done for him," he insists--answer-ing letters, reading speeches, seeing people. But smart politicians know that Louis Howe has "yes or no" authority from the Governor. They always seek him out, fill him full of their desires and schemes. Well out of the spotlight, he will be on hand at Chicago, reporting every convention move over long distance to Albany.

"Whatever the Result." The Chicago convention will surely be bitter, probably protracted. The fight over Roosevelt will inflict deep ugly wounds. Last week party leaders prepared to administer first-aid after the carnage. In a "message of practical politics" 61 prominent Democrats appealed for contributions to the party's $1,500,000 Victory Fund and promised:

"Whatever the result of the convention, the Democrats will get behind their nominee and support him loyally."

Among the signers of this pledge were Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Alfred Emanuel Smith.

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